Kayako of Aridon, Damein of Suteron
by Wait.What
Summary: Shaiya What happens when you shove a catalystic Vail with a Nordein with a low tolerance level, and then force them to go fight one of the most evil of all evil things? Well, you get something like this. T for typical stuff like blood, guts, and swearing.
1. Argilla Ruins

_**Kayako of Aridon, Damein of Suteron**_

Argilla Ruins. I'm sure you've heard from Mitsuku and Saturn on how horrible that place is. I had even heard a Nordein say that is was hell, and Nordeins happen to be pretty brave (or arrogant, I'm not sure which). And yet here I am in Argilla Ruins, looking for a party to help me kill Kargos and Knight. As a skill level nineteen Assassin, I'd have a hard time just trying to stay alive, let alone searching for where these guys I was sent to kill were. Thus, searching for a party was nessecary.

Ten minutes later, I was accepted into the party that my old friend Mitsuku had organized. Three Assassins, one Oracle, a Hunter, and a Warrior. Mitsuku introduced me to her cousin who I had already met, Saturn. The Hunter, Duister, was a friend of hers, and the Warrior, Damein, was a friend of Duister's. Although Duister treated Damein more like a slave than a friend...The Oracle's name was Eve, and she was Saturn's sister. We all had quests here, it seemed. Saturn was here for Vegabonds, as was Duister. Mitsuku needed the Evil Spirit of Argilla Ruins, as well as to kill Knight. Damein had the same quest as me, as did the Oracle.

Like I said, I had met Saturn before. She was a quiet girl, a bit ditzy and out in the clouds, but quite the perverted sadist. She was a bit voilent, and she spoke with weird and very colorful language, but she was defenetly someone you could depend on. Mitsuku was quiet as well, and would talk quietly if she didn't know you or you didn't happen to piss her off or if she hadn't considered you a friend yet. She would rely on strategy rather than brute strength, as well as speedy slashes, to get past tough opponents. She liked to train, but like me, she lacked the focus to train in one set area, so she'd search for opponents that would make her stronger. I'd heard a bit about Eve through Mitsuku. Eve liked to cast multipul spells on opponents, and took care of enenmies rather quickly. She did a pretty decent job at healing, but she seemed to prefer killing to healing. She did like to transform random people into animals, however, so she was a nuetral Oracle that probably would have liked to be a Pagan instead of an Oracle.

The other two, Duister and Damein, I didn't know two much about. Duister seemed to prefer arrows, unlike most Hunters, and seemed like an unfortunate master to Damein. Damein only carried an axe, and didn't take advantage of the Warrior's ability to have a shield.

So it was four Vail with two Nordein, with most of us being female. Yays!

We set off from the entrance and into the first room, where we were almost immediately attacked by some skeletons. But these were not what we needed, so we kept on running into the next room. The next room was filled with the Soldiers from the past room and some female Goddess Worshipper Shamans. I had never been a fan of Shamans of any race (being a close-range combat fighter, I wasn't too fond of being attacked from a distance or having my prey stolen from me), but with the Iceball spell of theirs they were twice as annoying. We could've just activated Sprinter, but we had the members who weren't Assassins with us. So we just ran on, following Mitsuku down a hallway on the right side of the room, an tried to avoid the attack the Worshippers and the Skeletons.

Eventually they lost interest, and the hallway stopped twisting andturning and showed us a room fill with Goblins, more Worshippers, and lots of hallways to chose from.

"Well ain't this fine and dandy? You lead us out of one hell-hole and into another hell-hole that just so happens to be worse. Now whaddya going to do?" Damein asked, crossing his arms and glaring at the Goblins. I would've chuckled if he hadn't been such an ass, seeing as he wasn't too fond of the Goblins. Mitsuku glared at him, while I saw the Oracle's staff hand twitch.

"Shut it, will you? You'll draw them over here." Mitsuku replied, annoyed. "We need to go this way to get to Knight, Kargos, the Vegabonds, _and_ the skeletons that drop the Spirit I need. Haven't you ever been to Argilla Ruins before?"

The Warrior looked a bit sheepish as he said, "No." and Mitsuku grinned.

"Then shut the fuck up and follow a person who has!" Then she broke off into a run into the room filled with Goblins and Worshippers and yelled, "follow me, quickly!"

And follow her we did. She ran down a long hallway, through a room filled with Goblins and Skeletons and some long dead blood corpses, and sprinted down a short hallway that held two different types of skeletons.

"We stop here. I need the Evil Spirits from these guys." Mitsuku announced, coming to a halt suddenly. Eve accidently ran into Saturn from not being able to stop quick enough, and the momentum transfered from Eve to Saturn, who bumped into Duister. Duister glanced back at Saturn for a second, who was grinning guiltily, before turning back around to face Mitsuku. "We can kill either one of these guys. Just make sure you give the spirits they drop to me." The party of four Vail and two Nordein nodded in unison, understanding what they had to do, and then we broke off to attack the Skeletons.

These Skeletons were very different from the ones we had seen at the entrance. Instead of a long wooden pike, they carried blades and books. I suspected that the ones with the books were spellcasters, and started to attack the nearest one. As it turned out, I was right. They did cast spells, but they were nothing like the ones that the Goblins and the Worshippers cast. They didn't seem very powerful, but I suspected that was because Eve stood near the wall, keeping a lookout for enemies and healing us soon as we were injured. I killed off a few of the Spellcasting Skeletons before I cast the Dodge spell and a Luck spell. The Dodge spell only worked on me, but the Luck spell worked on al of our team-mates.

I came at a Skeleton, this time one with a long swrd and tattered armor, and slashed its at the arm holding the blade. It cut smoothly and clattered to the ground, and I smirked, feeling triumpant as I stabbed the area that would 'kill' the living Skeletons. It dropped a black orb, which suddenly started flying around my head like mad. I quickly captured the buzzing black orb in my clawed hands, and the orb buzzed angrily in protest.

"Oi, Mitsuku! I think I got one of the Spirits you were talking about!" I cried triumpantly, holding the buzzing orb in my hands above my head. Mitsuku quickly dispatched of the Skeleton Soldier she had been fighting against, and it vanished in a blueish-green light. She grinned and walked over to me and took the Spirit from my hands, grin growing ever the wider.

"Yup! This is defenitely it! Now I just need one more!" She put the Spirit in a clear case and put it into her bag before going off to kill another Soldier. I turned to go kill another one myself, grinning like mad and stabbed a spellcaster with my claws. It growled angrily before chanting words that I couldn't understand, and suddenly my whole body felt like it was on fire. I heard myself his in pain as I shook my head and closed my eyes, and I felt quite detatched from my body. I opened my eyes and noted that my vision was no longer clear, but now green. I gasped and cried, "You bastard!" and then stabbed him in the head. It died rather quickly after that, and a took a spot next to Eve and waited for whatever spell the Skeleton had cast on me disappeared. I decided that I did _not_ like my vision being green and hope dit never happened again.

The pain slowly went away and my vision returned to normal, and with a few heals from Eve I went back into the fray. I quickly went up to a Soldier, not wanting a repeat of the last experience, and slashed its left arm off. The Skeleton growled angrily, and slashed back at me with its sword. I quickly stepped sideways, not feeling like getting impaled today, and raised my clawed hands to slash its other arm off. But then I heard a growl behind me, and turned to see another Skeletal Soldier, blade raised and charging towards me. I gasped and my eyes widened, and everything seemed to slow down rapidly...

And then it sped back up again when Damein hacked the Skeleton's right arm off. I smirked, overjoyed to be hole-free and not blood-soaked, but my pride refused to allow me to be saved by a Nordein and not make a smart remake about it.

"Not bad.." I complimented as I did a backflip, slashing off the other Skeleton Soldier's right arm as I did so. I I landed on my feet roughly, smirking as the Skeleton Soldier ran away, my body taking the jolt with ease, and stoo dup from my crouched position. "...For a Nordein, that is." I finished, smirk growing wider. Damein glared at me, and I felt myself bask in his hatred.

"What did you say, Vail?" He spat, and I grinned. Nordeins were always so fun to piss off.

"You heard me, or are you just deaf?" I replied, putting my hands on my hips cockily. The hand holding the axe tightened its grip, and my grin grew even more. I heard a growl behind me, to my left, and quickly sidestepped to my right before checking it out, which turned out to be a smart move. Had I been there a second later, I'd have been impaled. Instead, the Skeletal Soldier was headed towards Damein. His eyes widened and he cursed as he swung the axe at the Skeleton. It went right through the Skeleton's neck, which would usually have 'killed' the Soldier, but this one seemed to be of a higher grade. The skull fell and crashed into the ground, shattering, as I sped towards the Skeleton, determined to cut its arms off. Just as I slashed the Skeleton's sword arm off, Damein raised his axe and slammed it into the Skeleton's chest. It crumpled soon after, and a buzzing black orb flew out of the Skeleton's armor. Damein stared at it blankly before reaching out to grab it, since his height made it difficult for the black orb to fly over him and out of his range. he stared at the hand the black orb was in before looking around for Mitsuku. I crossed my arms and rolled my eyes, tapping my foot impatiently. Now that Mitsuku's quest was over it was time to go hunt Kargos and Knight.

A minute later, I heard Mitsuku's excited "Yes!" and knew it was time for us to head on. Mitsuku led us once again, this time down a ramp and through a long hallway. Damein ran behind me, and I felt him glaring at my back. I smirked, and followed Mitsuku, paying no attention to the Nordein.

Eventually the hallway slanted back up again, and we entered a room filled with more skeletons. I sighed, getting really tired of fighting the pesky bastards, but perked up when Mitsuku asked what time it was.

"Hmm...I believe it's about 5pm, why?" Eve asked, fidling with her staff. Mitsuku grinned, putting her her clawed hand on her hip.

"Because this is the room where Kargos spawns." I grinned madly, happy with this news. "And he forms every half-hour. But..." My grin dropped. But..? There was more? "Knight spawns every hour. We can take care of Kargos, then go to Knight's room, or we can go to Knight's room now and wait for Kargos to spawn in thirty minutes."

"What are the benefits of going to Kargos first?" Duister asked, her face looking bored but her eyes showing that she was actually annoyed.

"Well, Knight's room has Vegabonds." Saturn immediately paid attention after that, and Duister grinned. "...But getting there and back is a pain because there's a room with Worshippers on the way." And then Duister's face full out irked.

"Stay here." We all said, almost in perfect unison. It seemed that none of us wanted to deal with the Witches.

Duister shot an arrow at any Skeleton that came a bit too close, and Eve sent spells their way, trying to clear the room for the battle with Kargos. After all, no one wants to get mobbed when facing up against one of the most powerful Argilla Ruins monsters, right? So we all helped out while Mitsuku kept an eye out for Kargos on the other side of the room, near the entrance to the hallway that would lead to Knight's room eventually.

And then it came. "There's Kargos!" Mitsuku shouted, before running towards the gigantic creature that looked like a mix between a skeleton and a bug. We followed her to the left side of the room, slashing like mad at the large creature. Somehow I wound up fighting next to Damein, which irked me when I found out, but regardless I kept attacking Kargos. It was Saturn who struck the final blow, allowing us to kill Kargos. I grinned when the battle was over, happy that the battle was over, and that one of the monsters I had been hired to kill was dead. Damein looked a little less pissed at me, but then again I never really could tell with that permanent frown and those scars on his face. Oh well, I'll make sure he gets pissed off at me again later.

Duister and Saturn had both leveled in the battle, and now we were waiting for them to swap their gear for upgraded ones in the hall. They returned five minutes later, with their new gear on, and we headed off for Knight's room as fast as we could. We still had to face those damned Worshippers along the way, after all. We ran down the hall, and I couldn't help but notice that it was getting warmer, which was strange for Lailah unless we were getting near a portal. The next room we came to was filled with Skeletons, which we avoided battling. And then I saw the reason why it was getting warmer; a portal loomed down a short hallway, and Mitsuku ran towards it. We followed her, as usual, and ran straight into the portal.

When we exitted the portal there was a long hallway, and in the distance I could see a statue. Mitsuku was already ahead of us, and we followed her right past the statues. The room that the hallway exited to was full of Skeletons and Worshippers, and I mentally cursed. They chased us down anothe rlong hallway, and we finally exited the hallway into a large and openly spaced room.

"Here we are!" Mitsuku announced, but in a somewhat annoyed tone. Probably because she spotted the other party across the room. We ran over to the left side of the room, hoping to lose our previous hunters, and succeeded. But our victory was short-lived, as Eve was attacked by an Underground Vegabond, and we were forced to battle it. Duister smirked, happy that this was indeed the room she needed to be in, while Saturn grinned, her pupils in small slits as she slashed at the target. Eventually, I left Eve, Duister, and Saturn to take care of the Vegabonds and other monsters in the room, knowing that they'd definitely be enough to get rid of them.

Meanwhile, Mitsuku and I (as well as Damein, unfortunately; his master had deemed him unneeded and he was forced to follow us) joined the party on the platform. The platform had a regal-looking area that almost looked like a shrine of some sort, but when I checked it out there didn't seem to be any thing _to_ worship. So I decided to use this spare time to get a few needed minutes of sleep.

When I woke up next, I thought i had heard Damein whining about have to go to the bathroom but not wanting to get mobbed. Then I heard some unison opinion, and was forced to hope that whatever it was, I wasn't going to get picked because I was (pretending to be) asleep. Instead, I was kicked in the stomach and my eyes snapped open to glare at Duister, who was now hovering over me. Now fully awake, I heard what she was saying and didn't like it one bit.

"So now you're going to have to make sure he doesn't get attacked." Duister finished, and I frowned while noting that the other party was laughing at my perdicament.

"No." I said defiantly. There was no way in this hell or the next hell that I was going to be degraded into something as stupid as that. Duister glared at me, but I was unfazed. Vail _were_ highly known for not getting scared easily.

"Aww, c'mon, Kaya..." Mitsuku whined, and I glared at her. She wasn't going to get me with anything. She made a puppy dog face, and I stared at her blandly. "Pwease?"

"Hell to the no. You know those kind of faces only make me want to smack something. Preferably the person who is making them." Mitsuku stopped making the face, and crossed her arms.

"You're going."

"Why don't you go? Aren't you the party leader or something?" I asked, mildly wishing her hair would set on fire at that moment.

"Which is exactly why I _shouldn't_ go. If I get returned to the entrance then so would you guys if you guys pass out." Mitsuku argued. In the corner of my eye I saw Damein roll his eyes.

"Why can't Duister go with him? I mean, she gets along fine with him, unlike me." And then I had both Duister and Damein added to the glare-fest. What, was it Everybody Glare at Kayako day?

"Kayako, you never get along with Nordein guys. You always piss them off." Mitsuku replied. I could feel the Nordein guys from the other party glare at me. Yup, definitely Everybody Glare at Kayako day.

"It's fun." I answered simply. Mitsuku face-palmed. I grinned.

"Just go."

"Don't wanna. I like the floor."

"It's covered in blood." Mitsuku argued, raising an eyebrow as she placed her hands on her hips.

"Point being?" Mitsuku sighed, before speaking to Damein.

"Just drag her off. Maybe I'll get lucky and she'll get killed." Damein shrugged nonchalantly, before walking over to me. I glared at Mitsuku as he picked me up, swinging me over his shoulder. I swear I'm going to kill them both...

"Ass."

"I know, dontcha love it?" Mitsuku replied, grinning.

"I hate you all."

"We know, and we don't care." And that was how I wound up leaning against the wall, waiting for that idiotic Nordein to hurry the hell up. Kayako is now beyond pissed. Five agonizingly long minutes later he reappeared and I wished that I could stab him. We headed back, him being annoyingly slow. Aren't people with lots of muscle suppose to be fast? Gah...

"So..." Damein tried to break the silence. Seemed like he was the only one uncomfortable with it.

"I like the quiet, so please shut up."

"You're really bitchy, y'know that?"

"And you're an ass. What's your point?" Damein sighed, and made what appeared to be an annoyed face. Still can't tell, really.

"Nevermind..."

"Meh." Ten minutes later, we were back. And then Duister started to yell at us.

"Where were you two?! We could've lost to those twits over there because you're so freaking slow!" She screeched, and I pointed at Damein, my face nuetral. Or at least I hope it was nuetral.

"It's his fault for walking damned slow." Damein glared at me, and I walked over to Saturn and plopped down next to her. Thankfully Saturn was quiet, and when she did say something it was usually pretty funny. I stared at her out of boredom until she started to grin like a Cheshire cat. Then I started to freak. Saturn never grins like that unless she's going to say something she knows will get her in trouble or if she's thinking about it.

"So..." She started, and I mentally wished for Etaine would kill me right then and there. I even wished that the Lightie Goddess would kill me at that moment. But alas, I was still alive to hear Saturn's question. "...How was staring at his ass?" And now Saturn has a bloody nose. Heheh...Mitsuku noticed that I punched Saturn, as did Eve, but they merely raised an eyebrow and figured that Saturn deserved it. Which she did.

"This time to battle Knight is getting near." Mitsuku announced, standing up. We all stood up at that, and I stretched. "Kayako, a Luck buff, please." I stared at her as if she was crazy, which she probably was.

"What, can't you do it?" Mitsuku gave a sheepish grin as she shook her head. I turned my gaze to Saturn, who shrugged sheepishly. "...You guys are all useless." I set up the Luck buff while Eve set up the other buffs. We crowded around the altar-like thing, all waiting to help our party get the experience and credit for killing Knight. And then the ground started to shake, and golden light swirled around the altar as Knight appear with several Skeletal Soldiers. We charged immediately, weapons ready to strike. Sadly, I was the first to srike Knight. Which meant his attention was focused on me. He slashed at me with his own gigantic claws, and I barely dodged it by jumping. I slashed at his arm a few times as I fell, and he howled out in pain. Then the room suddenly got much hotter, but I didn't know why I as my attention was focused on a Skeleton that had decided to attack me. This one was quite a fast striker, and now I had to deal with both Knight trying to kill me and this Skeleton. I had just dodged a powerful smack from Knight when Damein randomly tackled me, and all I saw next was red, then black.

I woke up groggily, a bit sad that my dream had ended because I was in my own personal horror story, which didn't bother me in the least. Wait a sec, I didn't remember falling asleep. Crap.

"Nn...What the hell happened?" I asked, not really expecting a reply but getting one. A very angry one, at that.

"Stupid little Vail! You almost got me killed, that's what!" I was no longer drowsy. Instead, I was angry. I looked for the source of the voice and found Damein leaning against a tree as his backrest, looking very beat up. I, on the other hand, had been deposited on a pile of rocks near a stream. A sat up, crossed my arms, and glared at him.

"Why did you try to save me if you hate me?!" I snarled, glaring daggers at the Nordein, who was glaring them right back. It was awfully bright here, and I didn't like it, so I channeled my dislike for that as well as my hate for him towards Damein.

"I was saving my own skin! You know how ticked Duister'd be if I had the chance to save you and didn't?" Damein shot back, clenching onto his axe like it was a lifeline.

"Hah! You really fear her, don't you?" I taunted, snickering. Damein's glare seemed to intensify, if that was even possible. He seemed to be glaring at me with all his being.

"Damn stright! I have no intention of getting myself killed because the only Assassin with the Luck buff croaked!" My eyes widened slightly, before I chuckled and closed them.

"...Ah, now we're getting somewhere." I said as I got up, opening my eyes. Damein gave me what I assume was a confused look, which I ignored. "Well then, I suppose your little Duister wouldn't be too pleased is the only Assassin in our party with the Luck buff quit the party, would you?" His eyes widened, realizing my plan.

"You little bitch!"

"Calling me named isn't going to help you. Tell Mitsuku I got a bit preoccupied." I replied, stretching before I started walking along the river. Strange, I don't remember being here ever...And wasn't I inside last time?

"Oi, where do you think you're going?" Damein shouted, getting up quickly. Or what was quickly for him, I suppose.

"Away from you." I shot back, wishing for the hundredth time that this armor set had pockets.

"Oh no you're not! You're staying right here!" I snickered as I kept on walking.

"You seem awfully attached to me. "I tuanted, and I could practically hear him seething.

"You need to get some sense whacked into you! I am not taking the heat for losing you, espically in Teos!" I froze in midstep. Suddenly it was all pieced together for me. Knight had opened a portal, and as I was dodging an attack from Knight a Skeleton had attacked me, or tried to, and Damein had shoved me out of the way and into the portal. We must've landed in Teos, which explained why it was so damned bright compaired to Lailah and I didn't recognize anything. And we must've been discovered by those Elven or Human freaks with the incredibly pale skin and they attacked us, which is why Damein looked so beat up.

"How long have we been here?"

"Day or two."

"I take it we were discovered?"

"Numerous times."

"You try searching for a portal?"

"Yup. You're fat."

"I'm going to ignore that comment. So basically the only way we're going to get to Lailah again is if we cross the border?"

"Basically."

"We are so going to die."

_Gods, this took forever to write. I'm actually surprised that this came out so long. But don't expect all my chapters to be this long, or else I'll go crazy. What is even more surprising is if you type "Shaiya" into the search bar that the only story that comes up would be one for InuYasha. Anyways, I've had this idea in my head for a llloooonnngggg time. You are now free to flame._


	2. Erina

_**Kayako of Aridon, Damein of Suteron**_

"You're awfully optimistic." I said, sitting back down since she didn't seem to be leaving. The platinum-blond Vail turned and raised an eyebrow.

"I like to look at the real side of things." She replied curtly. She sighed and sat down as well, and I smirked. Me, one, her, none.

"We're not dead yet." She snickered, refusing to believe that we'd get back to Lailah before one of us died.

"Are you kidding me? You look like you'd croak at any minute now!" Gee, I wonder whose fault _that_ is.

"At least I could hold them off while you were unconscious." I shot back, and noticed that I'd have to clean my axe again sometime soon. And while I was doing that, get it repaired. Etaine knows I need it...

"Hn..." She crossed her arms and glared at a creature in the distance. I smirked, knowing that she'd have very few comebacks for that one. "...So did those Lightie bastards happen to drop anything useful?" I grinned, feeling accomplished, and started to dig through my backpack.

"Yup. A Lightie map. Seems we're in this Erina place. Would explain as to why they've all been so bloody weak, since I heard that Erina is where they all start from." I replied, chucking the rolled up map at her, which she caught easily.

"If they're so easy then why do you look like that, huh?" She asked as she stretched the map out and started to look at it. "This is rather painful to look at..."

"I happened to face a party of the bastards, if you must know." I defended, crossing my arms and hoping she'd get done with the map soon.

"Damn, Teos is really weird. Not at all organized like Lailah is. And with this huge river, we could be anywhere!" Kayako complained, and I rolled my eyes. Aren't Vail suppose to be scholars or whatever? Sheesh...

"I think we're up near Aelbeague." I replied, shrugging. "I saw some Kappa earlier, and heard one of those Lighties call it a Sealakel."

"Or we could be near Keolosseu, since there are those thingies near here, too." Kayako argued, glancing at the monster key at the bottom of the map. I sighed, seeing that this wasn't really getting us anywhere.

"Whatever. We just need to head east until we hit the mountains, cross them, and we'll be in Lailah again."

"You make that sound so simple, but I know it's not going to be that easy."

"We're probably near the starter villages, so if we do come across any Humans or Elves we can easily kick their asses." I replied, getting up. Who knew when the party I got rid of would come back here, hunting for us, or tell one of their higher ups? We needed to get out of here, and sitting around wasn't going to help.

"Yeah, but what about the monsters?" She argued. I rolled my eyes, patience wearing out.

"We'll kill them. Two Fury against these weak monsters?" Kayako rolled her eyes, before getting up.

"Your optimism is going to get you killed. I suppose we might as well try it, but if we get in over our heads I'm blaming you." I shrugged nonchalantly, before starting to walk east.

"Fine with me. By the way, do you have any healing items? I kind of used all mine up." I asked, feeling a bit annoyed at having to ask her.

"Pfft...Yes, I have some, but they're mine. I barely have any left, anyways." Oh, wonderous. Stupid selfish Vail...

And so we trekked on, ocassionaly stealing the map from each other to check our location. Eventually, however, we got bored. "I spy with my little eye...Something pale." Kayako started. I rolled my eyes, but really hoped it wasn't an Elf or a Human.

"A Human?" I guessed, hoping I was wrong.

"Sadly, correct. Doesn't seem to have noticed us yet, though. Your turn." And hopefully the Human continues to not notice us...

"Don't want to play."

"Too bad. I'm bored." Kayako replied angrily.

"I thought you _liked_ the silence." I shot back, snickering.

"The damned birds here won't be quiet, in case you haven't noticed, so it's futile." True. Lailah birds rarely ever made a peep, while the birds in Teos were all singy and crap. Kind of annoying, once you thought about it.

"Fine...I spy something brown." I said, looking at my axe and reminding myself I needed to get it fixed soon.

"Tree?" Kayako guessed, looking around for objects that were brown.

"Nope."

"Ground?"

"No."

"You?" I glared at her, at that moment wanting her to get struck by lightning or something to that effect.

"..."

"...I'll take that as a no...Eheheh..." Gee, you think? "Umm..." At that moment, a squirrel fell from a tree and landed on her face. I snickered at her luck. So maybe it wasn't a bolt of lightning, but it was still satisfying. "...A squirrel?"

"Bingo." I replied, grinning. The squirrel scampered off her face and onto another tree.

"Damn...I am never, ever coming to Teos again! I don't understand why Mitsuku would even _want_ to explore this place." I raised an eyebrow, not knowing about this.

"Mitsuku actually wanted to come here? Why?"

"I dunno. It's been her dream for quite a while now, but seriously, as to why she'd want to come here is beyond me." Kayako replied angrily, eye twitching as she glared at the wildlife.

"Maybe she wants to come here because she hasn't seen how weird it is here." I suggested, randomly pointing at the trees.

"Ehh...I dunno...Wait, is that a road?" Kayako asked, staring at an obvious dirt path. Actually, three dirt paths. Kayako grinned and dug out the map, and started to see where we were. "We're in between Aelbeague, WindTail Forest, and the Fanseleneon Institute. Sheesh, these names are near inpronounceable."

"See, I told you we were near Aelbeague." I said, also grinning. Kayako rolled her eyes.

"Whatever. How long have we been travelling?" Kayako asked, looking towards the sun which was getting close to the horizon.

"Enn...'Bout three hours or so. Why?" I answered, swinging my axe a bit.

"Oi, watch it..." Kayako took a few steps closer to a tree, not wanting to get decapitated (not like I'd do it, anyways), before she continued," we could probably get back to Lailah today if we kept going and didn't sleep."

"That'd be a good idea. I'm not too keen on being discovered again, and I doubt any Humans or Elves would be out this late." She nodded in agreement, and we checked to make sure there were no Elves or Humans before trekking on. We couldn't stay on the road, but we could stay near it. So we did. Two hours later, we found another road, and Kayako checked the map again. "Shouldn't be too much longer..." I muttered, missing the quiet of Lailah. At least there weren't retarded birds that sung during the night there...

"Yup. Only a few more hours 'til we reach the mountain range, and after that we're home-free." Kayako agreed, walking on. Home-free, eh? What was home? Lailah? Suteron? "Hey, you smell smoke?"

"Hn?" I sniffed, and I did smell smoke. We were in a pretty forested area...Was it a forest fire? "Yeah, I do. Where d'you think it's coming from?" I asked, both of us stopping to look around to see it.

"I dunno, but I do know one thing: smoke rises, and the best way to see where it's coming from is up a tree." Kayako replied confidently, before walking over to the nearest tree, and climbing up it with the help of her claws.

"Oi, I don't think you should--" I started, but she cut me off.

"You don't want to get caught up in a forest fire, right?" Kayako asked, and even though I couldn't see her face I could tell she was smirking. She reached a branch and used it to get up off the trunk of the tree.

"No, but..."

"Then shut up, will you? Damn, I still can't see it..." She jumped from one branch to a higher up branch, almost missing. "Dang, that was close! Need to be more careful..."

"Which is exactly why you should come down!" I argued, crossing my arms.

"I can't hear you..." She replied in a sing-song voice. "Ooh, I think i see it. One more branch should do it..." She hopped up to another higher branch, this time not screwing up. "Yup, I see it! I don't think it's a forest fire! Some El--"

**Crack...**

"Oh, hell..." I heard her say, before cursing myself. Stupid, fat Vail...

The branch snapped out from under her, and she started falling. She avoided the branch below by diving sideways a bit, just barely missing it. "Oh, mother of..." I heard a loud thud, and started running in the direction that I heard it. I only ran about ten meters before a saw a large hill, and at the bottom of the hill was the camp of four Elves and two Humans. Kayako had landed on a on the hill, and was now attempting to get up.

"Well, whaddywe have here?" An Elf asked, getting up. "A little Vail _spy_."

This wasn't going to turn out well...

_I didn't know what Kayako's name meant until I looked it up, but apparently it means small misquito net. Which is quite fitting, actually, since she happens to run into annoying people most of the time. Mainly Nordeins. P_


	3. Complications

_**Kayako of Aridon, Damein of Suteron**_

My head was pounding, my vision was being all weird, and we had been discovered by a party of Elves and Humans.

Wonderful way to end a day, right? Wrong. The Elf came at me with his dagger, and I barely had time to dodge. I muttered a curse, before bringing my claws up and slashing the Elf across the back. The Elf cried out in pain, and I chuckled a bit. Even after just falling and feeling like letting unconscienceness take me, I could still kick Elf ass.

"You bitch!" The Elf snarled, and I chuckled a bit. The Elf's companions were getting up to help their buddy, and I knew that if this wasn't finished soon I'd be in trouble. Falling and hitting my head and getting into a fight right afterwards were not smart things to do. And yet here I was, doing them. The Elf lunged at my angrily, and I slashed at his wrist. He made a girly scream, and I noticed that I might've just hit a place that he could die from. Oh well, his fault for attacking me.

His Elf buddies double-teamed me, both of them holding the daggers that the first Elf had been carrying. Judging by the looks of their gear, they could only be about skill level ten or so. But then again, it was three level ten Elves plus two who knows what level Humans against one skill level nineteen Vail. This was going to suck. The Elves attempted to slash me on both sides, but I stepped backwards and they wound up hitting each other instead. "Silly Elves, don't you know not to that against a Vail?" I taunted, and tried to stab the nearest one, a female with blond hair, in the chest and succeeded. She gasped, spitting out blood, and I had to sidestep quickly so she didn't succeed in stabbing me back. She fell back, retreating over to where her Human compainions were, while her Elven compainions seethed.

I heard a sigh behind me, and turned my head to see Damein behind me. "You sure know how to get into trouble." He said, looking a bit amused and annoyed at the same time. I turned my attention back to the Elves and took a few steps back, not wanting to get stabbed or anything else unpleasant.

"Well, my Mum always did call me a catalyst." I replied, grinning. The Elves cursed, realizing I had back-up, and took a few steps back themselves while the Humans took a few steps forward. The two Elves I had attacked were leaning up against a tree, not too far from what I'm pretty sure was a Human Oracle.

"You'll have to tell me what that means later. As of now, we're going to have to get rid of these pesky Lighties." Damein replied, stepping forward.

"You aren't leaving Teos alive, Vail and Nordein!" A Human girl said, stepping up and crossing her arms over her chest. She was holding two swords in her hands, and was looking quite determined to not let us leave.

"You think we _wanted_ to come here, you moronic little Human?" I shot back, glaring at her. She raised an eyebrow, but said nothing back in return. Instead, she charged at us, arms no longer crossed and swords ready to strike. I went to go attack her, but Damein blocked my path with that large axe of his. He swung it at the Human girl's midsection, and it plunged straight into her stomach. I mentally winced. Nordeins were pretty strong, and taking an axe to the stomach must've hurt like hell. Damein removed his axe, and the Human girl clenched her stomach and dropped to her knees. The Human Oracle looked horrified, while the two Elves that were still standing took a few steps back, their eyes wide with fear.

"You...you demons!" One of the Elves shouted, knife clenched like a lifeline and face looking like a mix of fear of anger. I raised an eyebrow, a bit amused. I know that I've been called lots of things on the battlefield between Fury and Light, but this was a new one.

"No more demon than you two." Damein replied, swinging his axe over his shoulder. "Now...Are you going to let us go, or are we going to have to injure a few more of you fatally?" I wiped a bit of the blood that had flown off of his axe off my face, grinning. Damein had never seemed so cool before. We had already taken care of three of their party. They'd be foolish to attack us again, even more-so since we were oviously of a higher level than them.

"Why are you two here, anyways? Are you spying on Erina?" The other Elf asked, and I glanced at Damein, unsure if we should tell the enemy of what had happened.

"The only information we have about here is that we never want to come here again." I replied dryly, crossing my arms. "Other than that, no, we aren't spying on you losers. We just want to get home." They looked surprised at me telling them this, but they quickly recovered.

"Oh yeah? Then how did you two _get_ here, anyways?" The Elf shot back, and I sighed before jabbing my thumb at Damein.

"His fault. If he'd have just let me get stabbed we'd never of gone through that portal that Knight opened." I answered, and Damein glared at me. "What? It is." Damein rolled his eyes and shook his head in disbelief. The Elves stared at us like we were crazy, which in their opinion we probably were.

"Knight? Who the hell is that?" The Human Oracle asked us, walking towards us and grabbing his Human companion.

"Creature we were sent to kill." Damein replied simply, revealing no more than he should.

"So let me get this straight..." One of the Elves started, "You guys were sent to kill this Knight thing, he opened a portal and as you were about to get stabbed he shoved you out of the way and into the portal, dragging you two in Erina?" We nodded in unison. That was pretty much the all of it. "Bullshit." I face-palmed, unable to believe that these goody-goody Lighties weren't believing our true story.

"Why else do you think we were heading east?" Damein asked, sounding just as annoyed as I felt. That left the party opposite of us quiet. "All we want is to get back to Lailah. If we were really trying to spy on you guys they'd have sent stronger people, not the two of us."

"He does have a point, y'know." The Human girl from before said, the Human Oracle still in the process of healing her wounds. "And why would they send both a Nordein and a Vail? The two species hate each other."

"These two don't seem to hate each other." One of the Elves replied, and I snickered which brought their attention back to me.

"We're in enemy territory. If we didn't stop trying to kill each other then we might've come across a situation like this and died anyways. Duh." I explained, amused. "As soon as we get back to Lailah we aren't going to be so friendly." One of the Elves closed his eyes and sighed before opening them again.

"We're going to talk this over. You guys just go...Whatever." The Elf turned his back to us and walked back over to the tree, where the Oracle was shifting around nervously, and the other Elf followed him. I blinked in confusion.

"What the hell..." I started, and Damein just walked over to a tree and sat down, using the tree as a backrest. I sighed and walked over to the tree and plopped down a few feet away from Damein, crossing my legs and arms. "So...What're we going to do now?"

"Enn...Hopefully they'll let us go. If not, we'll kill them."

_-sigh- I want a Dr. Pepper..._


	4. Judgement

_**Kayako of Aridon, Damein of Suteron**_ (chptr 4: Judgement)

**Disclaimer:** I live in America, not Korea. 'Nuff said. This shall apply to all other chapters as well as this one. I also do not own any songs or any refrences. :(

Misaki, Hideki, Finrir, and Mao Li huddled around Luminoir and I around the base of the tree. I seem to be in decent condition due to Luminoir's healing, but an axe to the gut is never a pleasing thing. Misaki and Mao Li were holding up pretty good, too. That Vail Assassin did a pretty good job on them, despite having been attacked out of the blue. Just goes to show you how powerful the Vail really are. I cast a glance over at the Nordein and the Vail. The Nordein was leaning against a tree with his eyes closed, while the Vail had changed her position to where she was laying on her side, arm propped up and head resting in her palm, staring off into the distance. "So how's your wounds?"

I broke my gaze from the two Fury, and looked st the speaker, Hideki. "Nnn...Mine are fine, thanks to Lumi." I replied, and Lumi gave a sheepish grin.

"Hurts everytime I move anything connected to my torso, but otherwise I'm fine." Mao Lin added in, tyring to move her body into a move comfortable position while trying to cause the least amount of pain possible. Misaki didn't reply, and just stared at his wrist.

"You still workin' properly, Ki?" Finrir asked, scratching the back of his head. "You took a pretty powerful set of blows, man." Misaki still didn't reply, so we stared at him for about thirty seconds until he did.

"I think..." he started, "that either way we do this, we're screwed. But I vote for going down fighting."

"I agree with Ki." Lumi announced, pointing his staff at the two Fury who were innocently sitting a safe distance away, minding their own bussiness. "They may be strong, but there are two of them and six of us. We can get them, I'm sure of it."

I shrugged my shoulders, not really caring what we did but hoping we'd take the route with the least pain. "You two must be nuts. There's no way in hell we'd survive against them. The Nordein looks like he's taken a lot of blows, while the Vail looks unscathed. They have strength, stamina, _and_ speed."

"Says you, Wic." Misaki spat. "You were all about not letting them pass earlier, what's with the change now?"

"You got the Vail, not the Nordein. The Vail was weaker and unprepared, so it didn't hurt as much. The Nordein, however, came later and was much more prepared and stronger. In case you didn't notice, I've still got a nice little slash in my stomach. All you have a slit wrist and a stabbed back." I replied cooly, motioning when nessecary.

"We're fighting them." Misaki replied, looking almost furious at my disconcerning of his opinion and his wounds.

"Last time I checked, you weren't decided as Team Leader. That was Mao Li." I replied, inwardly annoyed at the arrogant and egoistic Elf before me. Misaki turned his glare towards Mao Li, who just shrugged as nonchalantly as possible without causing pain.

"I could care less what _you_ do, but I want no part in this. All I want is to go back and sleep my wounds off. Just vote on it, will you?" Mao Li replied, clearly indicating that she had had enough of fighting for today. Misaki made a small noise of disapointment before turning to Hideki.

"Well, what do _you_ think, Hideki?" Misaki nearly snarled. He was already trying to keep a rein on his temper, which gave me mild amusement. And here we all thought that Elves were well-mannered, peaceful creatures. Hah, that's a laugh.

Hideki shrugged, looking unsure. "Normally I'd help if they seemed more...beatable, but I'm just a level nine Ranger, against two things that are obviously more skilled than us. So...No. Besides, now you only have two members willing to fight, and three who don't. You won't win." Misaki took a deep breath to try to calm his temper, and but it seemed to only add to his anger. He turned on Finrir, who was grinning widely.

"I'm behind you all the way, man! Those Fury losers are totally lying!" Ah, yes. That brings another point.

"Which brings us to another matter: are they telling the truth?" I asked. Misaki just shrugged nonchalantly.

"It doesn't matter. If we kill them, we won't _have_ to worry about if they're telling the truth or not." Misaki replied, now grinning. I rolled my eyes, not believing his idiocy.

"If you think like that, then you are no better than Fury." I stated quietly. Misaki's eyes widened slightly before narrowing.

"And what exactly do you mean by _that_? They've killed tons of our fighters, why should we not take rightful revenge?" Misaki shot back.

"An eye for an eye makes the whole world go blind, Ki." I quoted, my patience wearing thin. Misaki fumed silently, unable to think of a comeback. "Not only that, but...Killing them because they might've just accidently made their way into our territory isn't just." Now this Misaki could come back with a reply for.

"There is no 'just', or 'justice' in this world. Fair has long since stopped to exist. All that exists is revenge and a glorified censorship." Misaki spat, and I chuckled.

"Aye, that may be true. But should we not make our own sense of justice and help the fallen?" I replied, and Misaki rolled his eyes.

"If you do not want to get the only revenge for your cousin that you may get, you may stay there, on the ground." My eyes narrowed, and I raised my right sword up and pointed it at him.

"Revenge destroys life. I do not wish to follow that path, and I doubt that Fleko would appreicate it if I spent all my life trying to kill as many Vail as I possibly could because they took someone dear to me. Regardless of species or race, that is still murder. You are still taking life from the world. And besides, if it makes me become as despicable as a person like _you_, I'd rather stick to not killing anything." My voice was as harsh as I could make it, and I tried to make my glare worse. "If you wish to die on the path of revenge, be my guest, but I'd like to stay alive to complete my own dreams." Now it was Misaki's turn to narrow his eyes.

"You are weak-minded and too soft to become a true warrior."

"Then a true warrior I shall not be."

"Alright, you two. Break it up." Mao Li said suddenly, looking both bored and annoyed at the same time. "The point being is that we've got a tie here. Three people do not wish to fight, and three people do. And I doubt either of you are going to go ask those Fury of what we are going to do with them. Now, how are you going to decide this?"

Misaki's eyes and mine met, and we glared at each other before we spoke of the game we'd play to decide the Furys' fate. "Rock, Paper, Scissors?" We nodded in unison, and Mao Li grinned.

"See how easy that was?" She said, and in that moment I saw a feline spirit behind her eyes. My eyes widened slowly, and I wondered why she didn't use the claws that the Hunter class was able to use.

"Wait..." All eyes turned to Misaki, who was grinning almost sadistically. "...I have an idea. If you win, we all leave and there will be no fight." My eyes narrowed as I waited for the catch. "But...If I win, you all fight, no matter what. To the death." The silence was deafening, and my eyes trailed over to the Nordein and the Vail, who were blissfully unaware that their fate was being decided by a simple game of rock, paper, scissors. I sighed, hoping that this would turn out for the best.

"Very well. I agree to your terms." Misaki's grin widened, and for a second there he almost looked demonic.

"Rock."

"Paper."

"Scissors." My eyes widened, and I smiled a small smile, turning my head up to the starry sky.

"Rock."

"Scissors." I got up slowly, my body protesting highly, and noticed that Lumi's eyes were wide and fearful, almost as if he thought I'd fall appart.

"Wait, Wic! You are--" Lumi started, but I cut him off.

"I shall inform them of their fates." I walked over to the two Fury, and the Vail turned her head to look at me with an almost curious expression on her face. I sighed, disapointed. "I have come to tell you if you will fight your way out, or not." The Vail nodded silently, before looking over at her Nordein companion and made a somewhat annoyed face at realizing that her only ally was not awake, before it turned to amusement and then something I couldn't recognize. She moved her clawed hand, and poked him in one of the places he didn't have armor.

The Nordein's eyes snapped open, and he turned to see what had disturbed him and glared when he saw it was his Vail friend, who only gave a small smirk in reply before pointing at me. "She's gonna tell us if we get out of here peacefully or not." She announced, almost nonchalantly, before getting up. The Nordein watched her carefully as she got up, almost as if he thought she was going to attack him or something to that effect before getting up himself. I sighed once more, not really liking my self-appointed job but taking it up as best as I could.

"We have decided that..."

_"We're gonna leave you with a cliff-hanger!" :D People who hate cliff-hangers may now shoot me, although I don't recommend that since if you do that then you still won't know because I'll be in the hospital. :P 'Wic' is probably one of my favorite characters from this little band of Lighties, and that's saying something. -hugs Wic-_


	5. Kombat

_**Kayako of Aridon, Damein of Suteron **_(chptr 5: Kombat)

The Human girl sighed once more, as if ishe was dreading to tell us the news. I tightened my grip on my axe, not wanting to be caught off-guard. "We have decided that...We don't believe you." My eyes narrowed, and Kayako cursed openly beside me. The Human girl suddenly charged, twin-blades raised, and Kayako cursed again before defending _me_ with her claws.

"What the hell are you doing?" I asked her, and both the Human girl and Kayako smirked at the same time.

"I hate being useless, y'know. I've been useless most of the time from being knocked out, and you're covered in wounds from having to protect both me and yourself from the Lighties." I blinked. Kayako could be...honorable? "I _hate_ it when people are injured for my sake." The Lighties looked as surprised as I was, but I quickly got over my shock and smirked.

"Never knew you Vail had a sense of honor."

"Honor? Bah. I'm just sticking up for my own _rep_!" Kayako repelled the Human girl, and she flew back about a meter or so. Once again, the Vail have me stumped. I swung my axe over my shoulder and grinned.

"Whatever you say, Kayako." The Lighties quickly got up, readying themselves to fight even though it was obvious that most of their hearts weren't in it. Looks like they had a few in-group disagreements...Kayako, on the other hand, was staring at me as if I'd grown another head. "...What? There a Dragon behind me or something?"

"No, that's just the first time I've heard my name come from your mouth. Last time I'd known, my name was still 'stupid little Vail' to you." I rolled my eyes. That's what this was all about? Sheesh, over-reaction...

"You're really weird, y'know that?" Kayako glared at me, and I grinned back at her, which seemed to make her glare more. "Now let's get this over with! I wanna get home before tomorrow!" There it was again. Home. What does that word mean, and how does it relate to me?

"You're right. Lighties have it easy with all these wussy monsters. I haven't seen a Poison Web Spider anywhere!" Kayako's words made me chuckle, as well as brought me back to the current situation. Six Lighties against two Fury. This wouldn't be good, no matter how strong we were. Beside me, Kayako flexed her claws that were sewn into her gloves eagerly. If she was ready for bloodshed, I told myself, then so was I.

"Let's do this thing!" Came the unison cry from the Human girl with the dual-swords and Kayako, before they charged at each other. The metal struck each other with a loud 'clang', and the other Lighties charged. Kayako quickly withdrew one of her claws and stabbed the Human girl right where her heart was, before heading straight towards the Human Oracle. I mentally grinned at her idea, then swung at my axe at the first Elf who had attacked Kayako before. He backstepped quickly enough to avoid it, so instead my axe swung into one of the male Elves, and hit him in the left arm. The first Elf jumped, dagger raised, and aimed for my head. I cursed, knowing what was going to happen but unable to stop it.

And then Kayako came and hit him with one of those special Assassin kicks to the head. "How'd you like my Halt Kick, shemale?" I grinned, thanking Etaine for sending Kayako to save me, then remembered two things. First off, it was the blue-skinned Assassin who got me into this in the first place. Second, there was still an Elf with a barely attached left arm next to me. I swung my axe back, readying to swing, when Kayako beat me to it with another one of those Assassin attacks, this one letting off blue-green light. "Heheh...And Mitsu says these attacks are weak." Kayako said, grinning almost sadistically as the almost one-armed Elf took a few steps back, before charging at the Elf again. Note to self, don't piss her off too much...

I heard a groan behind me and turned to see the Elf Kayako had 'Halt Kicked', cluching his now bleeding head. "You...You're wrong if you think I'll be just like you..." He muttered, and I raised an eyebrow. Maybe Kayako's Halt Kick had hit him a bit too hard and it did something besides make the guy bleed and unable to stand without shaking.

"Oi, where'd the Vail go?" Came the shocked cry of one of the Elves, and he was quickly answered.

"She must be using one of her upper-level skills to be hiding. I think it's called 'Stealth'!" The female Elf replied, and I spotted an almost transparent figure that resembled Kayako sneaking over to the Human Oracle, who was currently searching for the Vail as well.

"Shit, where is she?" I turned my attention back to the Elf in front of me, who was muttering incoherent things to himself. Suddenly he attacked, and I tried to hit him but wasn't fast enough. The dagger sunk into my collarbone, and I threw the Elf off of me, trying to keep myself calm as I removed the dagger. It had gone in pretty deep, and I knew my chances of leaving Teos alive just lowered incredibly.

"Ahrg! Damn Vail!" I heard the Human Oracle curse, and smirked. Well, not a total loss.

"Muu...You can't damn me, I'm already too damned already." Came Kayako's reply, and I could almost hear the grin in her voice.

"Damn! She got Lumi!" I glanced at the Elf who was now getting back on his feet, and at the dagger in my left hand. I smirked before turning around and chucking it at the female Elf, who had been too worried about 'Lumi' to notice it hurtling towards her. It missed the original target, her heart, but still hit her decently in the chest.

"Mao Li!" All attention was torn from Kayako and landed on me, to which I just grinned and dodged the unarmed Elf and whacked him in the back of the head with the blunt side of my axe. "Damn it all to hell!" The male Elf that was still uninjured looked furious, and made a sign with his hands. I mentally cursed, fearing an attack, and was even more surprised when he took off in the opposite direction, shouting "I'll kill you two one of these days, I swear it!"

And now it was one Nordein and one Vail against two dying Humans, an unconscience Elf, an almost one-armed Elf, and a dying Elf. Wonderous.

The one-armed Elf stepped forward, and I raised my axe in defence, noting that most of the claw wounds inflicted on him by Kayako were being healed by items. "...We'll let you go." I glanced at Kayako, who had a look of sheer disbelief on her face, and then back at the Elf. "Everyone who had originally wanted to fight you are dead, dying, or fleeing. I have no intention of adding myself to any of those lists, so as the final member of Mao Li's team, I proclaim you two as the victors." And with that, he walked off, leaving Kayako and I to continue our journey back home. Kayako grinned, turning her head to look at me. "You hear that, Damein? We can go back home!"

I might not know what 'home' was, but at that moment I was happy to have the chance to go back and find out.

_Nyaa...The school computers suck. They've blocked all the good sites, and the keyboards are really evil. I can't begin to tell you how many typos I made and fixed. Anyways, a cookie to the first person who tells me what the two refrences were, and where they're from. This chapter is dedicated to my Co-Mod Meta Kit on Gaia Online for her birthday. Fear her. She has Yahoo Instant Messenger and knows how to abuse it to the point where you feel like blocking her. Amzingly, this only took two front and back pages, so either I'm getting better at cramming stuff into space, or I add lots of words from my rough draft._


	6. Mountains

_**Kayako of Aridon, Damein of Suteron **_(chptr 6: Mountains)

_Jaa...Sorry I didn't post up a new chapter over the weekend, my internet died Thursday and we're still trying to get it back up._

I looked over at the mountains, then back at the destruction we'd caused. It was mainly my fault, since I didn't listen to Damein and wound up falling out of the tree, revelaing ourselves to the Lighties, and had killed almost half of their party. But then again, they'd brought it upon themselves when they decided to fight a second time.

For the first time in my life, I wished the war was over. Then if a Fury was transported to Teos by accident, we could avoid pointless deaths such as these. "Yeah, let's go home." I looked back at Damein, who was smiling slightly, and then glanced at the Elf who was trying to get the Human girl to eat some restorative fruits and was failing.

"Hmm...Yeah, let's go. Being in Lightie territory is starting to make me go soft." I replied, walking towards the mountain range that was so close and yet so far away, standing inbetween Lailah and Teos. Damein chuckled a bit, which made me raise an eyebrow. "What's so funny?"

"No amount of time in Lightie territory could ever make you soft with the way you were fighting back there.  
He answered, walking a bit faster to catch up with me.

"There's a difference in fighting and seeing the damage you've done." I said, mildly glaring at him. He just shrugged nonchalantly in response.

"Whatever you say, Kayako." My eye twitched slightly, annoyed and noting the déja vu. "You're still really weird." I face-palmed. He chuckled.

"For the record, weird is good. Secondly, shut the hell up before I Halt Kick you." I heard him mutter something that sounded suspiciously like 'Stupid Vail, stop acting like Duister...' before he wisely shut up. We walked in silence, and I ocassionally wished he had become a Hunter instead of a Warrior or use a Javelin. At least then he could kill those noisy birds...Why were they still chirping, anyways? Seriously, it's past midnight. Why haven't they been shot by some Elven Hunters? Sheesh...

A few hours later of wanting to mutilate birds, we had reached the mountain range.

"So, uh...How're we going to get over this thing?" Damein asked, arms crossed and staring up at the mountains before us. "I mean, couldn't we sneak into that popular Lightie city, go through the Frontier portal, and get back that way?" I stared at Damein like he was an idiotic crazy person, which I was slowly begining to think he was...

"So you're saying you'd rather backtrack to a _city_ full of _Lighties_, then go through _their_ portal and trek all the way from the _Lightie castle_ back to _our_ castle, then most likely not be able to get into Gliter because we're too high of level?" I asked him, trying to keep my voice level. The Nordein flushed angrilly and I smirked.

"Shut up...It sounded like a good plan 'til you stomped all over it..." He muttered, and I snickered at his childishness.

"Right, well you'd have led us to certain doom anyways because Lightie portals won't let Fury in, and Fury portals won't let Lighties in. 'Sides, too high of level."

"Shut up...It sounded god to me..."

"Yeah, well, I reject your reality and subsitute my own." I replied, and he raised an eyebrow.

"Okay then...How're we suppose to get up this thing, miss brainiac?" I grinned, knowing he was pissed at me and I was succeeding in my self-appointed mission I assigned myself two or three days ago.

"You've got weapons, use 'em."

And that was how we wound up climbing the mountain, using our weapons to help prevent our falling. A couple times I fell into snow drifts, and had to have Damein hual me out. Which is why Damein is currently laughing his ass off and I'm currently freezing my own off.

"Shuh-shut up. A-aridon isn't suh-surrounded by mountains that keep it cold, suh-so I'm not use to it." I stuttered, mentally cursing the person who made my armor becuase they couldn't make it long enough to cover my ass fully.

"Score for Suteron!" Damein replied, grinning, and I wanted to give him a Halt Kick to the head. I didn't, thankfully, because ten minutes later he was hualing me out of another snow drift. "Goddess, you have bad luck." he muttered, now looking a bit annoyed.

"Tell me about it..." I replied, sighing as I brushed the snow off of me, even though I knew it was just going to wind back up on me. I looked at the distance we had covered, and the distance we had until we hit a point to where we could walk around, but it seemed the closest way to that was littered with holes that you could see. And who knows about the ones you _couldn't_ see...

"Only gets worse from here..." Damein muttered, seeing where my gaze was focused on. I nodded, and then continued my way up the mountain. Thirty minutes are five snow drifts later, we were almost at a point where we could walk across the side of the mountain and reach lailah. Which was a good thing, since Damein's emotions were clearly reading 'fall in another snow drift and I'm _leaving_ you there'. No love for the Vail girl, huh?

I kept a very close lookout for snow drifts, not wanting to fall and be left to die in one. I can only hope that if I _do_ fall in another snow drift that Damein isn't so heartless as to leave me there, although his glare said quite the opposite. Five minutes later we were walking around the side of the mountain when the unthinkable happened. Damein fell into a snow drift. I laughed openly, and he glared as he tried to get up and out of the snow drift. I waited a few minutes before offering my hand to help him up, then noticed him staring at my claws wearily. I sighed and took my claws off both gloves, then offered my hand again, which he gratefully took. After about thirty seconds and me falling on my butt, I finally hualed the huge Nordein out of the snow drift. "Damn, dude. Never do that again." I said, putting my claws back on.

"I don't intend to." Damein replied, picking up his axe from where he'd thrown it up. "Aww, damn it!" I looked at the Nordein, curious as to why he was curious.

"What is it?" I asked, and he pointed at the large, snowy plains that connected to the mountains and that stood in our way of getting back to Lailah."...Wonderous. I wonder how many snow drifts are hidden in there?" I asked sarcastically, before sighing. "Let's just get this over with." Damein nodded, and I got up and started walking, absent-mindedly brushing the snow off my butt.

"Why the hell don't they make those things so they cover your ass _fully_?" Damein asked, staring at my butt. I blushed and glared at him at the same time.

"Why the hell do you think I know? I'm betting that the armor-smith just likes seeing the Sins' asses." I replied, angry and annoyed, and started to walk off towards the snow plain, only to forget that usually the snow drifts usually went on a while and fell straight into yet another one. "Bastard hole!" I growled angrilly, and Damein sighed and pulled me out.

"You really need to be more careful." Damein stated, looking annoyed.

"Shut up. It's your fault, anyways." I growled, crossing my arms and hopping over the snow drift of evil.

"Whatever." Damein replied, rolling his eyes.

"Ass..." I muttered. Stupid little...

"What about 'em?"

"...Go rot in a hole."

"I think not. You might want to try, though." Damein replied, a grin now on his face.

"Shut up before I Halt Kick you in the head." And then the grin died, and I smirked.

"Fi...Uuag!" And Damein fell into another snow drift. Note: mountains are evil. Never go back again.

"...I thought you said you weren't going to fall into any more holes." I said, smirking and crossing my arms.

"Shut up and help me get out." And so we trekked on across the weird plateau. One thing I noticed that it was a lot more windy, which meant it was colder. Yip-te-freaking-doo.

"Make the wind stop blowing!" I demanded childishly, and Damein rolled his eyes in disbelief.

"What do I look like, God?"

"No, but you look like you'd make a pretty good wind block." I replied, grinning as Damein glared at me.

"...I hate you."

"Feeling's mutual. Now block that wind!" Well, that was a failed attempt. Almost would've gotten sliced in half if he wasn't so bloody slow. Fifteen long, cold, and snow drift-free minutes later, we had reached the end of the plateau. And it looked like the only way we could go was down. Problem was, there was this nice, oh, fifty foot drop after a small decline. Small, _sharp_ decline.

"Can we go back? I don't like the idea of being turned into a puddle of goo." I asked, staring at the decline. On the bright side, I could see Panakeia Labs from here!

"Well, you wouldn't get too hurt. All that fat'd protect you." Damein replied, looking both annoyed and amused at the same time.

"Call me fat one more time and I'm Halt Kicking you off this thing."

"Whatever. Anyways, you should go first."

"And why's that?" I asked suspiciously, and the feeling grew when Damein grinned.

"If I fall, you'd make a good cushion."

"Not if I kick you off first." I shot back, narrowing my eyes.

"Fine, fine...Seriously, though, go first." Damein insisted, waving his hands.

"Hell no!"

"Your claws would make you it easier for you to slide down. Meanwhile, my axe would just kind of snag on stuff and I'd have a harder time." Damein explained, trying to presuade me.

"Then use your freaking hands." I said critically, wondering why he hadn't thought about that.

"Fine. Get smooshed. See if I care."

"You wouldn't, anyways."

"True." I sighed, uncrossed my arms, then tried to control my sliding speed as I slid down the sharp decline of the plateau, with Damein behind me going at a much slower speed since he was dragging axe through the snow. I crouched down, peering over the cliff with my claws haning over the drop.

"Well, on the plus side I can see the Panakeia Labs from here. On the downside, if I screw this up I am most likely going to die." Damein snickered. "I can still boot you over, y'know." And then he stopped. Score one for the sexy Vail!

I sighed, wondering how I was going to get myself down there. I could always ask Damein to boot me over. Nah...Then it hit me. This could be like one of those pools they had in Gliter, except it was air instead of water. Hmm...I turned around, and saw Damein watching a cliff off to the north suspiciously, before unfolding my legs and lowering myself. "Hurry up!" I said, and Damein turned around and made a face, and I slid down. But before I fully slid off the decline, I saw blonde hair, like that of an Elf...

Like Damein had said, my claws were pretty good at allowing me to slow down my speed, but I was still going at pretty fast speed. I had to will myself not to look down, knowing that if I did I'd panic. About fifteen seconds later, Damein seemed to be attempting what I was doing. So now it was either look down and panic or stare at Damein's ass. Wonderous.

I figured I had been sliding down for about thirty seconds and was lamost enjoying the chilling air rushing past me when I suddenly landed on something, then slid off its long red snout and plopped down onto the ground on my stomach. Ow. I heard a mighty roar, then an 'oof', then realized what was going to happen. And no, Damein was not gonig to be eaten by the Dragon. Instead, he landed on me. I could feel the metal rob of his axe digging into my back and groaned. And he calls me fat? Goddess-damn hypocrite...

Damein groaned, and I tried to wiggle out from underneath him. "Get...off...me...fucking asshole..." Damein rolled off of me, then stood up as the red Dragon let out another roar, and took off. Damein grabbed me by the stomach and I squeaked as he picked me up and forced me to stand. "Okay...never, and I repeat _never_ do that again!" Damein just shrugged and scratched the back of his head, looking over the wonderous country of Lailah I had come to miss in the two to three days we had been gone. The sun was just now starting to rise, and I smiled. "Looks like we're here, Damein."

"Mmhmm."

"Which is good, becuase your conversation skills suck."

"Damn hypocritic bitch..."

"Ass."

"Shut up and walk, will you?"

_This took two hours to write, and two hours to retype. Yay...My back hurts now 'cause this chair isn't my normal chair I sit in. ;-;_


	7. Return

_**Kayako of Aridon, Damein of Suteron **_(chptr seven: Return)

I sighed, my feet leading me up the path towards Yemitis Temple slowly. It had been three days now since Kayako and Damein had disapeared, and even with seven people searching we hadn't found hide nor hair of either of them. I had just been trekking through the long way from Gliter through the Escaton Ruin, having just recruited Phantom for the search. Duister had managed to get two of Damein's buddies to come search, and I only knew one of them. This should have been easy, but so far it wasn't turning out so well.

Eve had gone out to search around the Argilla Ruins in case they just had been transported to another room, but it seemed that they hadn't and so she resorted to searching around Aridon. So now she was off casting random spells on the newbies while searching. Saturn had gone off to search around Death Weaver, since she knew more about that area than most of us, and often purchased healing items from the merchants there. Duister was looking around Suteron as well as the local villages in that area, asking the newbies in that area if they'd seen a Vail with a Warrior. Not many had, since Vail rarely came to Suteron less frequently than Nordein came to Aridon. And none of them were what we were looking for, to boot. Phantom was checking around Vruion Forest and Herba Farm, since he knew a good deal about the terrain there.

One of Damein's buddies had gone off to check the Arteria Blood Lab, the Mines, and Gliter. Sombra, the guy Damein and I both knew, was checking out Keu for any signs of the two. I was searching everything inbetween Gliter, Argilla Ruins, Crow Swamp, and Panakeia Labs. A large area, but few people passed through it due to the strength of the creatures. Even the frogs there are a pain in the ass to kill.

Yemetis Temple peeked over a hill, and I smiled a bit. That temple started all of this with that stupid mission, but I couldn't bring myself to hate it or the Monks in it. It was like Aridon, the home away from home. I walked around the hill and over the steps to the temple, before plopping down on them, cradling my head in my hand.

"You idiots...Where are you?" I asked aloud, shaking my head.

"Who are these idiots you are talking about, Young Vail?" I jumped, startled that someone had snuck up on me, and turned my head to see an old Vail Monk standing behind me, smiling softly. It was the same Monk that had sent us to Argilla Ruins.

"Mmm...two people that I went to Argilla Ruins with. While we were fighting Knight he opened a portal and the two of them must have gone through it, I guess. Have't found them yet." I explained, a bit irked with the Monk. He frowned slightly, but still managed to look kind. Gah, if I could do that...

"That is indeed a sad problem. I take it you aren't the only one searching?" He asked, putting his hands together in the long sleeves of his Monk robe.

"No, there are six others beside me. Three Vail, three Nordein." I replied, poking a piece of grass with my claws in boredom. I really should get going, the sun was rising and I didn't want to seem lazy...

"My, that is a good amount of people. I suppose that they're still having a hard time still." I noded, staring off into the distance at Argilla Ruins. I heard bells ring, and the Monk sighed. "I am terribly sorry, but I must go help with the wards. I shall return shortly."

"Mmhmm..." Five minutes passed, and I though about all the better things I could be doing instead of waiting for an old Monk to return so I could angst. Suddenly there was a rush of air, and I turned to see a large, winged, and red-scaled creature fly overhead. My jaw dropped, and I stared in awe for a good thirty minutes, which was enough time for the Monk to return and see my condition, and walk off to find something to cure me.

"Damn, Kayako...Wish you could've been here to see that!" I exclaimed finally, feeling as if I'd just breathed for the first time in an hour. I heard a chuckle behind me, and was shocked to see Kayako right there, covered in the blue aura of Sprinter.

"What, that over-grown lizard? Please. I _landed_ on that thing." She said, grinning like a madman. "Lemme tell you, those things are _not_ soft."

"You...how...when...where...where's Damein?" I stuttered out, staring at her in disbelief. Kayako shurgged and plopped down next to me.

"Eh, I dunno. Probably still trying to catch up. Damn it, Nordein are _slow_." She replied nonchalantly, yawning. "Good Goddess, I'm tired."

"Where _where_ you two?" I asked, not understanding why we couldn't find them for so long. Even now, it had been seventy-two hours and the sun was almost fully over the mountains. If Kayako had been travelling all night, I could understand why she was tired since I wanted to crash myself.

"Lightie territory. They have crappy monsters." I stared at her, wondering if she was joking of not. But then again, it would explain why we couldn't find them.

"You're serious?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"Bastard."

"Bitch."

"You shouldn't talk about yourself like that."

"Yeah. I know you have self-esteem issues, dude, but seriously." I glared at Kayako while she just smirked slightly, the blue aura now completely gone. I sighed, crossing my legs.

"How was Teos?" I asked, and Kayako shrugged nonchalantly again.

"To be frank, it sucked." I laughed and waited for Kayako to continue. "The birds kept squawking, even at night, it was bright, there was only snow on the mountains, it was hot, they have wussie monsters, and Lighties are still hypocritic bastards." Kayako said, taking a big breath at the end. My eyes wided, my mouth dropping again for the second time in less than two hours.

"You fought Lighties?" I asked, shock probably written all over my face."

"Yeah. They're weird and they suck. We kicked their asses."

"We? As in you fought with Damein? As a team?" I asked. This day could shock me no more.

"More like I kept him from getting stabbed a few times. Oh, and Elves looked retarded with any weapon they use."

"Saved me from getting stabbed my ass." I turned to see Damein standing behind me, axe behind his head as he held it there, galring at Kayako. "All you did was kick them in the head and scratch the two that attacked me." Kayako rolled her eyes before she corrected him.

"It was three, and I saved your ass. How'd you get here so fast?" She asked, looking annoyed and bored at the same time.

"If you're too stupid to remember, then I'm not telling you." Damein replied, and I chuckled.

"Not enough bonding time, huh?" I asked, and had to dodge two half-assed kicks from Damein and Kayako. "Oi, you two need it!" Kayako just swiped at me with her claws, and Damein rolled his eyes.

"Young Vail, I am back." The old Monk announced, before noticing Kayako and Damein. "You two look familiar. Have I met you two before?" Kayako rolled her eyes, not believing this Monk's idiocy and/or forgetfulness.

"Kayako of Aridon, remember? You hired me to kill Kargos and Knight, and I wounded up getting sent to Lightie territory." Kayako said bitterly, and the Monk's eyes widened as he gasped.

"You were sent to Teos?" He asked, gasping slightly. "And you are...uninjured?"

"Define 'uninjured', will you? There is no way I'm going back there. There might be a few million dead birdies and a Sun God if I do."

"Have to agree with her on that one. Those birds are annoying." Damein agreed, and the Monk turned his attention to you.

"Who might you be? I take it you travelled with Miss Kayako to Teos?" He asked, and Damein shrugged nonchalantly.

"Damein of Suteron. Was sent by you to kill Kargos and Knight as well. Wasn't really expecting to get sent to Teos, obviously. Did you know about his ability to create portals?"

"No, I am sorry but I did not. So you two are the ones this young Vail here has been looking for?"

"Mitsuku. And I guess we are, since we were the only ones that were sent through the portal." I heard an almost silent hiss of pain from Damein, and out of the corner of my eye I saw he had been moving his left arm. Up on the left side of his neck there was a wound, one that looked like it had been made recently...

"All in all, it is good to see you out of enemy lands and unharmed." I started to say something, but he continued. "Did you happen to see that red Dragon pass overhead? The legends say that when that happens that the lovers of Lailah will be blessed with good fortune." Kayako snickered, and the Monk raised an eyebrow.

"I _landed_ on that over-grown salamander when sliding down the cliff near the Labs. I think it'd rather eat me." The Monk made an interesting face that I couldn't even begin to describe, and I decided to mention Damein's wound.

"I'm not too sure about the uninjured part, but it's good to see that you're alive." The Monk snapped out of his little state and turned his attention on me, while Damein looked as if he was either going to kill me or pass out.

"What do you mean, young Vail?"

"Mitsuku. And Damein has a wound on his shoulder-ish place. Looks...fresh." The Monk's eyes widened for the hundredth time, and he went to go fetch an Oracle while Kayako had somehow managed to get a rope around his neck to prevent him from running and was now smirking evilly.

"I hate you both..."


End file.
